The present invention relates to a control unit for controlling the position of various elements forming a vehicle seat, in particular an automobile vehicle seat.
It should be noted in this respect that seats for today's tourism vehicles or trucks must generally comprise the following adjustments:
a) front-to-rear longitudinal adjustment of the seat portion; PA1 b) front-to-rear adjustment of the under-thigh cushion; PA1 c) top-to-bottom adjustment of the seat trim; PA1 d) angular adjustment in inclination of the back portion of the seat; PA1 e) top-to-bottom adjustment in length of the back portion of the seat; PA1 f) adjustment of the lumbar cushion part; PA1 g) adjustment in inclination of the head cushion by a simple or double movement; and PA1 h) various other adjusting elements for adjustment of the back portion of the seat.
These adjustments or movements are effected by various mechanisms operated by separate electric or other motors. Separate motors make it necessary to use a plurality of electric circuits or the like which have to operate independently of one another.
Up to now, the seat was provided with an operator panel comprising as many switches as the number of necessary electric, hydraulic or pneumatic circuits; it was necessary for the seat user to make a time consuming and sometimes difficult adjustment. Moreover, the corresponding unit was costly and cumbersome.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to remedy the above drawback by providing a control unit for adjusting the position of various elements that form the vehicle seat.
Another object of the invention relates to the fact that the control unit can be provided with a memory means enabling it to keep in memory various adjustments for a given user, which means that, when the user takes a seat in the vehicle, he or she can in a very short time obtain the position of the various elements of the seat as previously chosen by him or her. Moreover, the top part of the control unit can be provided with a keyboard having a set of keys enabling, after adjustment of the seat, a memorization of the position chosen by the user.
The invention is also extended to a control unit that makes it possible to control the heating of the seating member of the seat in case of need.